If you think Japan lives in a “‘Kawaii’ calture” (sic), then do your homework on non-kawaii anime. From least offensive to most, here’s a few things to pass a week or two: Tekkonkinkreet (non-cute art), Mononoke [not related to the Miyazaki film by a similar name] (non-cute art, dark themes), Elfen Lied (wow things got dark fast on this list), Berserk.

For manga, feel free to read Shamo and Berserk, my favorite examples of “wow this is dark.”

The art form is capable of, and frequently used for, dark and adult stories.

2nd: Speaking of scares, when the rate of horror shows relying on jump scares or blood and gore drops, I’ll be motivated to pay money to see a horror show.

3rd: Are cartoons/anime or any form of animated media for that matter, scary? Higurashi, Devil Lady, Another, RAINBOW, Elfen Lied, HOTD, Gyo, etc, etc, etc. Anime with a “horror” theme are creepy and freaky at best, but never scary and frankly, why should they be? Why should animation be scary? It just doesn’t work.

Maybe I’m saying these things because I was more freaked out by the Fatal Frame series and Silent Hill 3 than animated “horror” shows. Oh my gosh, this reminds me of the Haunted House in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Oh dear, I’ve gone off track and started talking about scary video games rather than animation. Sorry.

Horror is, as a general rule, a participatory art form more than any other. You get out of it what you put into it. That’s why there are so many more horror VNs than horror anime, and the anime is never as scary.

Chaos;Head? Scary. Chaos;Head anime? OH WOW I HAD BEEN ACTING ON ASSUMPTIONS BUT THIS IS AWFUL. I thought I should do my research before I just declared it “not scary,” but really? That hero looks like he has down syndrome, not at all the way he should look.

Higurashi? Reputation for scary. I wouldn’t know, I haven’t had time to play much. Higurashi anime? Not scary.

Similar for Umineko, but with more of a focus on the mystery aspect than the horror.

Again with Silent Hill, which had 4 good games (then they broke up Team Silent…) and 2 terrible, godawful films.

It seems to me that the story keeps repeating itself: Games and reading, the two places that horror thrives (though there is bad horror gaming and bad horror fiction, the good stuff is so much better) are not-coincidentally the two most engaging forms of entertainment, since they both require thought to be put into it. It forces the player/reader to bring to it a certain amount of thought, and therefor to bring to it a certain amount of themselves and their own past experiences that add to the experience.

Compare to anime and TV in general, where most people watch it while doing something else, whether it’s knitting or checking email or writing goddamn novels that intrude into other people’s otherwise normal blog-reading experience. :p A lot of that personal investment that allows the consumer to internalize the scares is lost because of that distance.

Berserk comes to mind..that anime is not horror but the ending was horrific!
my friend I really was not prepared for how that show’s story took a completely different sharp left turn to the cemetery! from hack and slash action adventure story to an ending i almost can not stomach

@windyturnip: Exactly! Anime is forced to attempt to keep us interesting for as long as possible, where a horror film does it in such a short amount of time. It definitely makes a big difference. Anime clearly has a lot going for it in terms of how it can present a story, but you may be right, that producing the needed realism that horror often needs just may be something they can never quite accomplish.

I felt Blue Gender got a bit less tense when I saw how commited the writers were to murdering every single character except the male and female lead.